21 November, 2009

Under My Belt

My first teaching experience is over. My first experience teaching quilting, that is. It is now safe to say that I have a new dream career. Out of the window is my secret fantasy of being a DJ. Hmm, okay, that will still remain a not-so-secret fantasy and teaching will become my aspirational career.

For the past two Fridays I taught an Improv Piecing class to 4 lovely and interesting women. (Full disclosure: one of those women was my sister-in-law.) They were all experienced quilters, but they ran the gamut from exclusive pattern users to art quilter. Most importantly, they were there eager to learn some new techniques. And they all left happy, or so they told me.

I now know that one of the best parts about teaching is seeing what your students can do with the information/ inspiration you are able to share. The 4 women showed up with 4 very different sets of fabrics. One came with a delicious selection of her own hand-dyed fabric. There was a grouping of earth tone batiks that is making me want to rethink earth tones. My sister-in-law showed up with a good chunk of her staff, then augmented it heavily for the second class because she was in a purple kind of mood.

The final student came with a grouping of fabric that all showcased a chicken theme. I'll admit it, it wasn't my cup of tea, but I love the way her blocks turned out! It goes to show that improv isn't just for the modern fabrics. She is planning on making a table runner with her blocks.

During the class we covered wonky log cabins, chopsticks, free piecing, maverick/liberated stars, and what I call building blocks. The above blocks with all the purple are, of course, my sister-in-law's. I fear that my brother may be cursing my name because we figure she really started 4 different projects!

The blocks at the top of the post and this wonky churn dash are all from the same student. Aren't they fantastic? Sadly my camera and the lighting did not do justice to her gorgeous hand-dyes. She did a lot of work at home between classes because she was so inspired. So we started talking about what else you could improvise.

I'm eager to teach again, having made notes and refining the approach a little bit. Unfortunately, this LQS isn't interested in hosting the class again. That's okay, we thankfully have a lot of stores around!

Whoooo! It's true. It's fun! It's inspiring! Great beginning, keep running. Who knows what the finish line will look like! And who'd have thought chooks could be moderne! I gotta think about that as I have some of that kind of fabric in my 'been there, done that and moved on pile'! 8^)

I really really enjoy your quilt along!! It's so fun and very inspirational! Congratz on your first teaching class...looks like it went really really well! Have a lovely merry happy day and a wonderful thanksgiving. Thank you so much for being such an inspiration, loving and supportive friend! Love to you!